Dear Editor,
I was rather concerned, as a retired Chard GP who was a clinical assistant to the attending consultant geriatrician for a number of years, that Cllr Martin Wale had misrepresented the use of Chard Hospital in the past.
I became a clinical assistant in the late 1980s when Chard Hospital had four wards, not two, as Cllr Wale stated.
I agree that initially many were occupied by long-stay patients, but this situation changed whilst I was there as nursing homes opened in the area and patients could be transferred to them.
A number were there for successful rehabilitation by the occupational therapy department.
Some were post-operative transfers for a brief stay before going home, and some were admitted by local GPs who cared for them.
Gradually, during my tenure, the ward numbers shrank from four to two, and then I realised, when I attended the opening of the refurbished outpatient department (the only GP who did), that another ward had been closed.
The reason why all the in-patient beds disappeared (in 2017) had nothing to do with improvements to outpatient services but was due to difficulties in recruiting nursing staff to man the wards.
This information was actually in the public domain.
I would also like to point out that having a busy urgent treatment centre is worrying.
I have attended it as a patient and was appalled to see the number waiting for treatment.
It was like looking at my surgery waiting room 40 years ago.
Even worse was the clearly harassed receptionist having to turn patients away because not all of them could be seen in the time available.
I presume they had to trek all the way to Taunton to overburden the unit there!
I could see that most of the attendees would have been managed in a GP surgery.
In fact, we spent time educating patients not to go to casualty as it overwhelmed the management of genuine emergencies.
I could see this at close hand when I worked as a casualty officer.
I was also baffled as to why, as a patient, I had to see two nurses, one after the other, who were basically doing the same thing.
Obviously, no staff shortages nowadays.
Sincerely,
Dr Peter Glanvill
Share